The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1887-07-22
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
Facts showing That She Was Not an y
ucated Woman In the Sense OF To-Day

Facts Showing That She Was Not an Ed
ucated Woman In the Sense of To-Day.
She did not spell well, and her gram
mar would h -dly stand the parsine Of
the public schools. Copies of two Of
her letters to her sister, Mrs. Bassetf,
lie before me- They were written 1T
about the beginfing of the revolution
She begins one thus: 81 have wrota
to you several times. in hopes it would
put you in mind of me, but l find il
has not had its intended effect
Further on she adds: .sThe rivers has
never been frozen hard enough to
walk upon the ice since I came here
Among the misspe1t words of the letter
are: ..Navey'' for navy, "loded. for
loaded, "coles'' for Goals, .-distanf'
for destined, s.cleres' for clear.
"heare" for here, s.plesed'' for pleased.
and "greatfuln for grateful Com
pany she spells 'tcompaney." and per-
suaded ..perswaded- -
In the fac-simile of letter that she
wrote to William B. Reed, Of New
York, in 1777, see that she knew no
other punctuation mark than the dash.
that the apostrophe was stranger to
her, and that her writing. though not
illegible, was far from beautiful or ele-
CANT. The use of the capital was IS
embarrassing TO her as the use Of the
punctuation point, and her letters look
as though the capitals had been shaken
out of a mammoth pepper-box and per-
n1itted to lie wherever they fell.
One of her letters, commencing MY
1afo
by Rev. H E. Hayden, of Pennsylvania,
to the Magazine Of american History.
1t is dated mount Vernon. Aug. 7.
1874, and the verbatim spelling and
punctuation are preserved in the publi-
cation. Some of the sentences begin
with capitals and some without She
writes of ..AIy little nelly" referring
probably to Nellie Gusts, and in the
same line says that Tut is the same
clayer (eleYer) boy you left him. thus
eapitalizing the boys name, while she
gives no capital to that OF the girl She
writes Fanny ssthat the General had re-
eeiFed letter from her papa dated AZ
richmond. begins the next sentence
with a small letter. and in it capitalizes
Brothers, Families " and Ten
eral'i
4 person uses his best grammar
while writing, and he who makes mis-
takes here makes more In conversations
Martha Washington may have bean
well educated in the school of society
and in that of life. She was certainly
not so In books and literature. There
was no library to speak of at Monnt
Vernon. and General Washington was
more Of an outdoor man than a stu
dent. We have no record of his wife
being a reader. save that she read s
chapter in her Bible every morning
after breakfast. She knew nothing
about novels, and the American month
Il magazine, the great family educator
Of the present. was not vet born
Martha Washington had. however.
the best advantages of the daE Her
whole life was spent among learned
men and bright women, but there IS h.
record left that she was brilliant in so-
eial conversation. and yeu viii read IN
vain for the reported bon mots Of
Martha Washington. The truth seems
to be that MartI.. Washington thought
vonan's sphere was home, and that
knitting and cooking were more i'm
aortant than writing letters and 3
Silowledge OF French. She is said to
have been a good business-woman aud
TO have managed the large estate OF her
FIST husband very ably before she
handed her share OF it over to George
Washing gtoR. &C CcSnoEolitnn.